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Baraminological Study of Mammalian Order still much closer to each other within each group than they were and Stem Lagomorphs to species of their respective family in the other group. This is C. Araujo seemingly in contrast to Wood’s (2008) study which suggested that San Diego Christian College Leporidae and Ochotonidae were each monobaraminic. However, two Leporidae genera appear to be forming a “bridge” between Well-known for their tendency to proliferate, rabbits and hares the Leporidae species in the respective groups. It is possible that have managed to spread to nearly every continent on Earth. with a larger dataset and further analysis, the two groups could be They, as well as mountain-dwelling , are grouped within shown to actually be one larger, continuous group. Although these order Lagomorpha. Rabbits and hares are considered members of results are unusual and unexpected, two analyses by Thompson family Leporidae, with rabbits represented by several genera and and Wood (2018) were also both inconclusive on the baraminic hares grouped in genus Lepus, while pikas make up the family status of lagomorphs. It is still possible that families Leporidae Ochotonidae. There is only one , represented by genus and Ochotonidae are both monobaramins, but additional research Prolagus. There is also a mostly extinct family of Lagomorpha needs to be done. called Prolagidae; it has one extant species, Prolagus imperialis. Overall, there are about 90 extant species of lagomorphs and over Caravaggi A. 2018. Lagomorpha life history. In: Vonk, J, and T. Shackelford, eds. Encyclopedia of Cognition and Behavior. Springer International 230 species represented in the fossil record (Caravaggi 2018). The Publishing. Switzerland. pp. 1-9. stem lagomorphs included in this study are representative species Fostowicz-Frelik Ł, and J. Meng. 2013. Comparative morphology of premolar of genera Aktashmys and Dawsonolagus. Previous baraminological foramen in lagomorphs (Mammalia:Glires) and its functional and phylogenetic study was done on the Order Lagomorpha, which concluded that implications. PLoS One 8:e79794. Thompson, C. and T.C. Wood. 2018. A survey of Cenozoic baramins. based on available data families Leporidae and Ochotonidae are In Whitmore, J.H., ed. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on likely monobaramins, respectively, and that Leporidae could be a Creationism. Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, pp. 217-221. holobaramin (Wood, 2008). However, the dataset used was very Wood T.C. 2008. Animal and plant baramins. CORE Issues in Creation 1:1-241. small, consisting of the craniomandibular characteristics of six Wood T.C. 2001. BDIST software, v. 1.0. Center for Origins Research and Education, Bryan College. Distributed by the author. of the eleven extant lagomorph genera. More research needed to be done before any of the initial results could be considered conclusive. With this in mind, another morphological character Baraminology of Pareiasauria (Amniota: set was subjected to standard baraminological analysis (Wood, Parareptilia) 2001). Published by Fostowicz-Frelik and Meng (2013), this M.A. McLain dataset included 22 taxa representing all major groups of extinct Department of Biological and Physical Sciences, The Master’s University, Santa and extant Lagomorpha as well as one outgroup, Mimitona wana. Clarita, CA These were evaluated using 80 dental, cranial, and mandibular characters. After applying a character relevance cutoff of 0.95 to Pareiasaurs were medium- to large-sized herbivores with the dataset, 29 characters were used in the analysis. Twenty-six of stocky bodies found in Middle to Upper deposits. Their these were dental characters, and 3 were for the skull. None of the have been found in Russia, South Africa, China, Morocco, mandibular characters were used, making this study less holistic. Niger, Brazil, Germany, Scotland, Tanzania, and Zambia The baraminic distance correlation (BDC) showed two distinct (Macedo Farias, et al. 2019). Pareiasaurs possessed osteoderms groupings. The groups consist of both Leporidae and Ochotonidae along their dorsal surface and many had remarkable bony bosses, split fairly evenly between each group, with 6 ochotonids and 6 protuberances, or horns on their skulls. Pareiasaurs are recovered leporids represented in one group and 2 ochotonids and 5 leporids in most phylogenies as members of Parareptilia forming the along with 2 stem lagomorphs in the other group. Two genera, clade Pareiasauromorpha with Nycteroleteridae, which may be Mimotona and Paleolagus, were not positively correlated with paraphyletic (e.g., Tsuji 2013). The distinctiveness of pareiasaurs either of those two groups. On viewing the 3D multidimensional compared to other parareptiles suggests that they might not scaling (MDS) results, the stem lagomorphs are grouped together share ancestry with other members of Parareptilia. There are no separate from any other group, and Mimotona wana is distant to the extant parareptiles, although for a time turtles were thought to be other groups. There was discontinuity between the families within living members of this group since they shared an anapsid skull the two distinct groups, but the ochotonids and leporids were construction (e.g., Lee 1993, 1997). However, most researchers

©2020 The authors. These abstracts are open access and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium as long as the original author and medium are credited. Citation: Journal of Creation Theology and Science Series B: Life Sciences 10:1-8. now favor a diapsid (e.g., Rieppel and deBraga 1996) and likely Evidence for a Recent Transition into Parasitism archosauromorph position for turtles (e.g., Iwabe et al. 2004). within four Phyla of Marine In order to better understand the patterns of continuity and A.S. Rhodes, M.G. Wentley, and J.D. Blaschke discontinuity of the pareiasaurs, a published morphological Union University character dataset (Liu and Bever 2018) containing 139 characters (78 craniomandibular and dental; 61 postcranial) and 30 taxa The flatworm Urostoma cyprinae lives inside the gills of the (22 pareiasaurs, 8 other parareptiles) was analyzed. 25 taxa were blue mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis (Robledo et al. 1994, Brun retained for the statistical baraminological analysis (5 pareiasaurs et al. 1999). Although the worm is minute, when a blue mussel [Sanchuanosaurus, Obirkovia, Honania, Parasaurus, and Elginia is heavily infested, large lesions can form on the mussel’s gills. wuyongae] were removed for having character relevance cutoffs Blood cells are drawn to the damaged areas and are lost through of less than 0.30) using BARCLAY (Wood 2020) at a 0.75 taxic the tissue, further harming the mussel. As a result of the infestation, relevance cutoff, which allowed for the retention of 51 characters. the mussel’s feeding and breathing is severely impaired (Robledo Baraminic distance correlation (BDC) results show two clear et al. 1994). Parasites like the flatworm U. cyprinae pose a blocks of positive correlation (Pareiasauria and the outgroup taxa, particularly difficult problem for Young-Earth Creationists (YEC) respectively) with negative correlation or no correlation between who believe that the creator of U. cyprinae is a perfectly loving, the two blocks. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) results viewed deeply relational being (Francis 2009). Parasitism represents in three dimensions show two clusters, which correspond to the a corruption of harmony and unity between creatures of God’s two blocks of positive correlation in the BDC plot, separated by an creation. It seems counterintuitive that a loving God would have obvious gap in morphological space. The pareiasaur Shihtienfenia created parasites to inhabit a “very good” world (Genesis 1:31). is widely separated from the rest of the pareiasaurs but is not any And yet, parasites currently represent over 50% of all species on closer to the outgroup than the other pareiasaurs. Similarly, the earth (Weinstein and Kuris 2016). Therefore, YEC must explain nycteroleterid Rhipaeosaurus is far from the other outgroup taxa the origin of the numerous and diverse parasites we see today but is not any closer to the pareiasaurs than the other outgroup (Blaschke 2018). taxa. One possible explanation for parasite origins can be gleaned The clear positive correlation in the BDC plot and close from their biology. Interestingly, some individuals of U. cyprinae clustering in MDS of pareiasaurs is strong evidence for continuity exhibit a much less gruesome lifestyle. Rather than feeding within Pareiasauria. The negative correlation surrounding the on mussel tissue, they feed on microorganisms found in algae group in BDC and the large gap in multidimensional space between and mud on the ocean floor (Robledo et al. 1994). In this case, pareiasaurs and other parareptiles in MDS is strong evidence for parasitism is facultative--the flatworm is not biologically obligated discontinuity surrounding Pareiasauria. These results indicate that to be parasitic. In a YEC model of parasite diversification, God Pareiasauria is a holobaramin, which suggests that all pareiasaurs would have created the free-living form of U. cyprinae in the belong to the same created kind. This study marks the first attempt beginning and only after the Fall did the parasitic form adopt its to apply statistical baraminological methods to a parareptilian currently destructive lifestyle. Are the origins of all parasites so group, and one of the few statistical baraminological analyses of a easily explained? group found exclusively in Paleozoic rocks. In this study, we explore the diversification of parasites Iwabe, N., Y. Hara, Y. Kumazaw, K. Shibamoto, Y. Saito, T. Miyata, and K. Katoh. within four primarily marine phyla (Cnidaria, Ctenophora, 2004. Sister group relationship of turtles to the bird-crocodilian clade revealed Platyhelminthes, and Xenacoelomorpha) from a YEC perspective by nuclear DNA-coded proteins. Molecular Biology and Evolution 22(4):810- by examining the natural history of each parasite lineage, the 813. number of parasitic lineages, and the number of species in each Lee, M.S.Y. 1993. The origin of the turtle body plan: Bridging a famous morphological gap. Science 261:1716-1720. lineage. A parasitic lineage is an independent evolution of a Lee, M.S.Y. 1997. Pareiasaur phylogeny and the origin of turtles. Zoological parasitic clade originating from non-parasitic ancestors. The Journal of the Linnean Society 120:197-280. lineages researched were taken from Weinstein and Kuris (2016) Liu, J. and G.S. Bever. 2018. The tetrapod fauna of the upper Permian Naobaogou and Rohde (2005) and supplemented with more recent literature Formation of China: a new species of Elginia (Parareptilia, Pareiasauria). Papers in Palaeontology 4(2):197-209. when appropriate. Given the time constraints of a YEC model, the Macedo Farias, B.D., C.L. Schultz, and M.B. Soares. 2019. Bone microstructure of more speciose a lineage is the more difficult it becomes to explain the pareiasaur Provelosaurus americanus from the Middle Permian of southern its origins. For example, if most lineages of parasites contain Brazil. Historical Biology DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2019.1617288. >1,500 species, a recent diversification of parasites seems unlikely Rieppel, O. and M. deBraga. 1996. Turtles as diapsid reptiles. Nature 384: 453-455. Tsuji, L.A. 2013. Anatomy, cranial ontogeny and phylogenetic relationships of the (Passeroidea, the most diverse baramin of vertebrates, is estimated pareiasaur Deltavjatia rossicus from the Late Permian of central Russia. Earth at 1,500 species, Lightner 2013). However, if mainly lineages and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 104: with <1,500 species exist, then their emergence from non-parasitic 1-42. ancestors within the last 10,000 years seems more reasonable. Wood, T.C. 2020. BARCLAY. Software made available by Core Academy of Science. Collectively, the four phyla examined contain 40,272 species, 24,646 of these are parasites (61.2%). Parasitism is estimated to have arisen at least 63 times within these phyla, with an average species per lineage of 391, well below our 1,500 “reasonableness” threshold. However, the average is heavily distorted by two especially speciose lineages, the Neodermata (tapeworms and friends) with 22,000+ species, and the Myxozoa (whirling disease

JCTS B: Life Sciences www.coresci.org/jcts Volume 10:2 parasites) with 2,425 species. Remarkably, 60 out of the 63 serve as food and are instruments of blessing in a “very good” lineages contain <12 species (95.2%). creation (Gen 1:29-31). This overwhelming pattern of parasite evolution fits well with The fall account adds curse to blessing. The background a YEC model of life’s history and the abundance of lineages with statements in Genesis 2:5-6 and the narrative of 2:15 are key <12 species indicates that parasitism may not persist very long components for understanding the role of plants in the world after and only rarely leads to explosive diversification. As evidence of human disobedience. Genesis 2:5-17 interweaves background transition from non-parasite to parasite, many species were found descriptions (2:5-6, 10-14) with historical narrative (2:7-9, 15-17). to use similar consumer strategies as their free-living sister taxa, Genesis 2:5-6 describes a time before any bush of the field siah( simply switching from consuming unicellular organisms, diatoms, hassade), herb of the field eseb ( hassade), or man to work the or other small animals, to consuming the tissue of the host (e.g. soil (adam l’avod et-haadamah) existed, foreshadowing the man Micropharynx parasitica, a flatworm that lives and feeds on eating not merely the creation eseb but a more specific subset,eseb thorny skates and differs from its non-parasitic sister taxa only in hassade (3:18), and working the soil (3:23). While setting up the its source of nutrients). Additionally, the transition into parasitism fall narrative, plants still indicate only blessing, with difficulties often does not require novel adaptations, (e.g. Avagina vivipara, attending food acquisition coming later. God plants the garden, a xenacoelomorph without any morphological adaptations to places (sim) the man there (2:7-8), and causes beautiful and edible parasitism who lives in the esophagus of its host). We conclude trees to emerge, as well as the tree of life and the tree of the that the collective evidence observed in flatworm and cnidarian knowledge of good and evil (2:9). parasites (i.e. numerous independent transitions into parasitism, After describing Eden’s river-divisions and geography (2:10- each with low diversity) is compatible with a YEC model of post- 14), the narrative resumes in 2:15, which contains a verb (nuh) Fall parasite diversification. and two infinitives of purposel’ovdah ( ul’shomrah) key to one’s understanding of pre-fall plants. Translating 2:15b as God Blaschke, J.D. 2018. Toward a Young-Earth Model of Parasite Evolution. Journal “placed him in the garden to work and keep it” suggests work of Creation Theology and Science Series B: Life Sciences 8:1-5. responsibilities relating to the garden’s fruit trees and seeing avad Brun, N.T., A.D. Boghen, and J. Allard. 1999. Attraction of Urastoma cyprinae and shamar with meanings similar to their uses in 3:23-24 (work, (Turbellaria: Urastomidae) to the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica. Diseases guard). An alternative, God “caused him to rest…to worship and of Aquatic Organisms 37:139-144. Francis, J.W. 2009. Symbiosis, relationship and the origin of species. CORE Issues obey” points to other uses of the nuh, avad, and shamar roots in in Creation 5:63–192. the Pentateuch as well the morphology and grammar of the verbs. Lightner, J.K. 2013. An Initial Estimate of Avian Ark Kinds. Answers Research In the next verb, God commands him (2:16). The soil-service of Journal 6:409-466. 2:5 comes in 3:23, indicating food’s pre-fall abundance. The first Robledo, J.A.F., J. Caceres-Martinex, R. Sluys, and A. Figueras. 1994. The parasitic turbellarian Urastoma cyprinae (Platyhelminthes: Urastomidae) from translation sees some kind of pre-fall agriculture; the latter sees no blue mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis in Spain: occurrence and pathology. kind of soil-work until human disobedience. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 18:203-210. Curse follows eating from the forbidden tree (2:16-17; 3:1-6). Rohde, K. 2005. Marine parasitology. Csiro publishing. Collingwood, Australia. The man and woman produce fig-leaf coverings and hide among Roskov Y., G. Ower, T. Orrell, D. Nicolson, N. Bailly, P.M. Kirk, T. Bourgoin, R.E. DeWalt, W. Decock, E. van Nieukerken, J. Zarucchi, L. Penev, eds. the trees. God interrogates and sentences, reprimanding the man 2019. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 2019 Annual Checklist. Digital for listening to her voice regarding the tree, and announcing major resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist/2019. changes (3:7-19). Food will come from a cursed ground (adamah) Weinstein, S.B. and A.M. Kuris. 2016. Independent origins of parasitism in and be eaten after painful toil (3:17). Frustrating thorns (qotz) and Animalia. Biology Letters 12:20160324. thistles (dardar) will spring forth. Man must eat eseb hasadde (cf. 2:5) by the sweat of his face (3:18-19). Man will eat food but Plants as Instruments of Blessing and Curse in the return to dust (3:19). God denies access to the tree of life (3:22) Primeval History and banishes him “to cultivate the soil” (3:23, echoing 2:5). Cain is D. Smith similarly described (4:2), whom God sentences and curses “from Independent Scholar the soil,” restricting his farming endeavors (4:11-12). The flood account shows plants as reminders of blessing and Plants appear at key junctures in the Bible and serve as indicators curse. A tree-wood construction (6:14) preserves humanity through of God’s blessing and curse. Attention to the Bible’s treatment of judgment. The olive leaf signals hope for land’s reappearance plants in literary context of Genesis 1-11 reveals that its priority (8:11). Perpetual seedtime and harvest guarantee reproduction is not to provide comprehensive taxonomies but to distinguish life (8:22). Man’s dietary expansion suggests food scarcity (9:3). Like before and after the fall. The creation narrative presents plants as Adam and Cain, Noah becomes “a man of the soil.” He plants a a blessing, while the fall and flood narratives mingle blessing and vineyard and becomes drunk from its wine, an event paralleling curse. Genesis 3, including human nakedness, covering, and curse (9:20- In Genesis 1:1-2:3, God creates plants on day three to benefit 27). creatures made on days five and six. God calls earth to sproutdeshe, Plants were originally instruments of blessing, but eseb, and etz (Gen 1:11-12). Deshe is not part of a trichotomy of curse was added to the blessing in the wake of human grasses, herbs, and trees, but plants generally. The single cognate disobedience. Creation, perpetual reproduction, and cultivation verb and the lack of repetition of deshe in 1:29-30 favor dichotomy. possibilities witness to blessing while agricultural frustrations Origin, sequence, distinctions in seed production, created kinds, and the subsequent returning to dust witness to curse. and ultimately provision of food take priority over comprehensive as concerns of the text. The types of plants presented

JCTS B: Life Sciences www.coresci.org/jcts Volume 10:3 Community, Autonomy, and the Emergence of common because ecosystems are dynamic places where nutrients Parasitism are obtained whenever and however possible. An animal may be M.G. Wentley, A.S. Rhodes, and J.D. Blaschke “parasitic” at a certain stage of life, at a certain point in time, or on Union University a certain kind of host, and completely harmless or even beneficial at a different life stage, time, or place. This observation reveals two significant things about how The existence of parasitic animals presents a challenge to nature reflects the character of the Creator. First, animals exist in Young-Earth Creationism (YEC) not only due to their destructive perpetual and intimate community and these intricate relationships lifestyle but also because there are so many of them. Parasitism has are meant to reflect the harmony and unity of the Trinity. Second, arisen independently in at least 223 animal lineages (Weinstein animals behave autonomously and thus reflect the perfectly free and Kuris 2016) and parasites collectively represent half of all nature of God. As a result of this freedom, animals are allowed described species, making parasitism the most common consumer by God to behave in contrast to his desire for harmonious strategy on the planet (Price 1980; Dobson et al. 2008). A world relationships. Arising then from community and autonomy, created writhing with so many harmful animals contrasts acutely parasitism can emerge quickly in nature as ecosystems and the with the image of a loving Creator and a very good creation (Gen. relationships within them change through time. The dual concepts 1:31; Mace et al. 2003; Ingle 2015). Many creationists therefore of community and creaturely autonomy grounded within a YEC hypothesize that parasitism arose from mutualistic or commensal framework offer one potential explanation for how parasitism organisms after the fall as relationships deteriorated over time rapidly became ubiquitous after the fall. (Francis 2009; Sherwin 2013; Ingle and Aaron 2015; Blaschke 2018). If all animals were created non-parasitic only 6,000 years Blaschke, J.D. 2018. Toward a Young-Earth Model of Parasite Evolution. Journal ago, it seems reasonable to expect that parasitism would be of Creation Theology and Science Series B: Life Sciences 8:1–5. relatively rare today. Why then, is parasitism so common and what Boero F. and J. Bouillon J. 2005. Cnidaria and Ctenophora. In Rohde, K., ed. can the emergence of parasitism reveal about God through nature? Marine Parasitology. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia, pp. 177–182. Here, we work towards answering these questions by Dobson, A., K.D. Lafferty, A. Kuris, R. Hechinger, and W. Jetz. 2008. Homage to Linnaeus: How many parasites? How many hosts? Proceedings of the National analyzing patterns of parasite diversification within four primarily Academy of Sciences USA 105(S1):11482–11489. marine phyla (Cnidaria, Ctenophora, Platyhelminthes, and Francis, J.W. 2009. Symbiosis, relationship and the origin of species. CORE Issues Xenacoelomorpha). We conducted analyses using both a “broad” in Creation 5:163-192. and “strict” definition of parasitism. Our “broad” definition Ingle, M.E. 2015. Parasitology and Creation. Answers Research Journal 8:65–75. Ingle, M.E. and M. Aaron. 2015. Baraminic study of the blood flukes of family includes any organism listed as a parasite from Weinstein and Schistosomatidae. Answers Research Journal 8:327–337. Kuris (2016) (parasite = any individual that obtains nutrients Mace, S.R., B.A. Sims, and T.C. Wood. 2003. Fellowship, creation, and from a single host) or Boero and Bouillon (2005) (parasite = any schistosomes. Impact 357:i–iv. individual that lives inside another). However, many species are Price, P.W. 1980. Evolutionary Biology of Parasites. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. ambiguously parasitic for one or more of the following reasons: 1) Roskov Y., G. Ower, T. Orrell, D. Nicolson, N. Bailly, P.M. Kirk, T. Bourgoin, their parasitic behavior can only be inferred based on association R.E. DeWalt, W. Decock, E. van Nieukerken, J. Zarucchi, L. Penev, eds. 2019. with a host, no documented fitness costs on their hosts yet exist Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 2019 Annual Checklist. (e.g. Meara spp.), 2) they are opportunistic rather than obligate Sherwin F. 2013. Parasites—Unwelcome Guests. Answers (1)34–37. Weinstein, S.B. and A.M. Kuris. 2016. Independent origins of parasitism in parasites (e.g. Sarsia bella), 3) one life stage is parasitic while Animalia. Biology Letters 12:20160324. another is free-living (e.g. Larsonia pterophylla), or 4) they only harm the host when present in unusual abundance (e.g. Waminoa Chromosome 2 Fusion in Human History brickneri). Therefore, our “strict” definition of parasite included K.P. Wise only obligate parasites that inflict documented fitness costs on Truett McConnell University their hosts under normal circumstances and in all life stages (e.g. Taenia saginata, the beef tapeworm). Chromosome banding patterns illustrated in Yunis and Pakash The biology and natural history of each parasitic lineage was (1982:Figure 2) suggested (A) the short arms of two chromosomes examined through a systematic literature review and species with similar structure to chimp Chromosomes 2A and 2B fused numbers were calculated using Roskov et al. (2019). Within end-to-end to produce human Chromosome 2, (B) the fusion these four phyla and according to a broad definition, parasitism event involved the complete loss of both telomeres and occurred has emerged independently at least 63 times. In contrast, using at the 2q14 end of 2q13, and (C) the deactivated centromere of a strict definition of parasitism reduces the number of parasitic 2B is located in 2q21.2. Since 1982, consilience of inductions of lineages from 63 to only 10 (84.2% decrease), primarily due to considerable data have confirmed all three claims: the ambiguously harmful symbiotic relationship between many sea anemones and their oftentimes living substrates. This result 1. Juxtaposed on either side of Chr2: 113,602,929 on human highlights how the definition of “parasite” drastically affects how genome assembly GRCh38.p13 (at the 2q14 end of 2q13; much of the world we see as writhing with parasites or not. here referred to as 2fus), are multiple homologous sequences Our goal here is not to redefine parasitism in order to artificially in reverse orientation. deflate the number of parasites for a YEC model to explain. 2. Juxtaposed on either side of Chr2: 132,247,344- Rather, our results simply illustrate the inadequacy of discrete 132,247,569 on human genome assembly GRCh38.p13 (in classifications, like “parasite” or “predator”, to accurately depict 2q21.2; here referred to as 2cen’) are homologous alphoid the complex continuum of animal interactions. Parasitism is

JCTS B: Life Sciences www.coresci.org/jcts Volume 10:4 sequences in reverse orientation—just as are found on Tomkins, J.P. 2018. Combinatorial genomic data refute the human chromosome opposite sides of centromeres. 2 evolutionary fusion and build a model of functional design for interstitial telomeric repeats. In Whitmore, J.A., ed. Proceedings of the International 3. In dozens of ways, DNA sequencing and FISH hybridization Conference on Creationism. Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, pp. 222- indicate the 2fus region is telomeric. In fact, from 2fus 228. towards 2cen, 83% of >193,000 base pairs show ≥97% Yunis, J.J., and O. Prakash. 1982. The origin of man. Science 215:1525-1530. identity with 22qtel from telomere towards centromere. Similarly, from 2fus towards 2qtel, 93% of >250,000 base Schwartz’s Fish Hybrids in Baraminology pairs show ~98% identity with 9ptel from telomere towards K.P. Wise centromere. Truett McConnell University 4. DNA sequencing and FISH hybridization indicate the region about 2cen’ is centromeric. Following Frank Marsh, modern creationists—especially those 5. DNA sequencing and FISH hybridization indicate synteny of the European school—have adopted hybridization as a criterion between the region across 2cen’ and across the centromere for identifying created kinds. And, it is largely because true of chimp Chromosome 2B, as well as between the region hybridization (utilization of DNA from both parents) has yielded across 2fus and across the short-arm subtelomeres of chimp no inter-family hybridization among and birds, that Chromosomes 2A and 2B if they were oriented end-to-end. many creationists believe the created kind is at the level of the taxonomic family. Evidence for end-to-end fusion of chimp-like chromosomes to Creationists have done little in fish baraminology. Out of >500 generate human Chromosome 2 is profound, but evidence that fish families, Wood (2008) applied statistical baraminology to the original chromosomes were ape (rather than human) is, at only four fish families, and fish hybridization data has not been best, very weak. Contrary to a chimp origin, 32-bp subtelomere utilized. Frank Schwartz’s fish hybrid bibliographies (1972, satellite DNA found in nearly half of the chimp telomeres— 1981) collectively report ~12,000 inter-specific hybridizations including 2Aptel and 2Bptel—is found nowhere in the 2fus region from ~2,900 references. Schwartz’s data is nearly ready for (nor anywhere else in the human genome). Yet, consistent with Hybridatabase submission. a human origin, both the 2fus and 2cen’ regions host sequences As demonstration of the potential value of Schwartz’s data, found elsewhere in the human genome, but nowhere in the chimp Schwartz reports 40 inter-generic hybrid crosses from 22 references genome. in the family Gasterosteidae. The gasterosteid hybridogram unites Of all the critiques of fusion theory published by Tomkins (see all the family’s genera except Culaea. Statistical baraminology, Tomkins 2018 for a complete bibliography), the most substantial however (Wood 2008), unites Culaea with Pungitius, so is that both 2fus and 2cen’ are located in the first intron of an hybridization plus sufficient similarity unite all gasterosteids into active gene. However, in each case, the first intron is huge, and a single monobaramin. though the first exon of the gene is located at multiple sites across Curiously, Schwartz (1972) contains 541 inter-family the human genome, it is not an exon in any of the genes sharing hybridization claims for 55 (of 448) fish families from 115 sequence identity with the gene. This suggests that both genes sources. These claims include inter-order crosses for 23 (of ~40) could have functioned on Chromosomes 2A and 2B before fusion fish orders and inter-infraclass crosses for 5 (of 9) teleost sub-taxa. without the first exon, and then added the first exon beyond 2fus There are even claims of Chondrostei-Teleostei crosses. Of the and 2cen’ subsequent to the fusion event. taxa involved in hybridizations, indirect hybridization unites 50 The fusion evidenced on human Chromosome 2 has no parallel families, 21 orders, 5 teleost subclades, and the Chondrostei and anywhere else in either the human genome, nor at any point in Teleostei—i.e., ~25,000 fish species (all but about 1,200)—into a development. Being neither a mark of maturity nor necessary, I single group. This group not only includes fish with and without know of no reason for God to create evidence of a fusion event scales (thus apparently uniting multiple biblical kinds), but also that never actually occurred. Therefore, I suggest there was a includes many very easily recognizable fish morphologiesi.e. ( , point in human history when two human chromosomes similar to probable cognita)—e.g., catfish, flatfish, sturgeons, angelfish. modern chimp Chromosomes 2A and 2B actually fused end-to- With regards to defining biblical kinds among fish, hybridization end, short arm to short arm. Since, as far as we know, all humans is either to be abandoned, or a baraminically useful hybridization have the single Chromosome 2 condition, the fusion event must criterion needs to be defined for fish (as it was for mammals). have occurred before the Babel dispersion prevented spread of Closed libraries and language barriers prevented examination of the fused chromosome condition to all humanity. That it occurred all inter-family and gasterosteid-genera hybridization sources (34 deep in human history is confirmed by evidence of fusion in both [30%]) and 10 [45%] respectively). However, what was examined Neandertal and Denisovan DNA. In fact, for complete fixation of was informative. Of the gasterosteid sources examined, two the condition, the fusion event most likely occurred when human merely cited the claims of others, six turned out to be intra-genus population was very small—i.e. either soon after the creation crosses, and one was an unsuccessful hybridization. We deduce event or soon after the Flood’s population bottleneck. that Schwartz’s sources must be examined before being used in Chromosome 2 fusion evidence could contribute to interesting baraminology studies. Thus, though the remaining 12 gasterosteid discussion on topics as diverse as creation with appearance of sources unite all the genera except Culaea, we cannot conclude history, non-pathological chromosome rearrangement, and human that Gasterosteidae is a monobaramin until this conclusion is population genetics. derived directly from original sources. Among the inter-family sources examined, various degrees of hybrid success are reported between fish families. In a typical

JCTS B: Life Sciences www.coresci.org/jcts Volume 10:5 fish life cycle, in the hours following the male’s application of Not all Scriptural repetition is textual. Some is oral (from sperm to the eggs, fertilization, cleavage, gastrulation, embryonic syllabic sounds to the sounds of words to the meter of entire differentiation, and hatching occurs. In the following days the passages). Some is in actions required of His people (e.g., from larva absorbs its yolk sac to become a fry, and over the following daily worship to weakly Sabbaths, to annual feasts). Scriptural months to years the fry becomes a juvenile, then an adult. repetition also displays a spectrum of similarity. Textual repetition According to the Schwartz inter-family hybrid sources examined, ranges from letter-by-letter identity to conceptual identity lacking high mortality rates are common in every developmental stage— common words or phrases. Vocal repetition ranges from partial even for intraspecific crosses. Fish sperm tends to stimulate fish identity (alliteration, rhyme) to homonyms, to identical words. eggs to progress to various developmental stages, even if the Some repetition is continuous; other repetition is discontinuous sperm are from very different higher taxa. Although some crosses (e.g. Kings versus Chronicles). develop parthogenetically, some sources document hybrids with Scriptural redundancy is abundant, ubiquitous, and fulfills fully incorporated inter-family sperm DNA surviving well into many purposes. Minimally, redundancy beautifies and unifies the late embryonic development. Although none of the sources text, reminds forgetful people of important facts, marks locations examined report inter-family hybrids surviving to adulthood, containing deep meaning, links distant passages for expanded multiple sources report successful hatchings—even of hybrids meaning and proper context, and provides multiple perspectives bearing paternal characteristics. This observation seems equally for key events. Since the same God Who authored Scripture also true among the different gasterosteid genera, between different created life, it is entirely possible that God intentionally placed families from the same superfamily, different superfamilies in the redundancy into DNA. This would not only explain the abundance same order, different orders in the same teleost subclade, and even and ubiquity of DNA redundancy, but it would suggest there are between different teleost subclades. multiple, interwoven functions of DNA redundancy. Different Since hybrid claims unite what are probably multiple cognita, degrees of similarity in DNA sequences would also be in line with a baraminologically useful hybribization criterion must require the sort of redundancy found in Scripture. more than gastrula development and the acceptance of DNA from Three examples suggest that functions for DNA redundancy both parents—as in mammals. If useful at all, development to at may have analogues among the functions of scriptural redundancy. least juvenile (and perhaps adult) stage will be required among For example, scriptural repetition can indicate where further study fish. is warranted. Analogously, because DNA splicing is facilitated with sequence overlap, some redundant sequences might have Schwartz, F.J. 1972. World Literature to Fish Hybrids with an Analysis by Family, been placed as strategic sites for chromosome repair, as well Species, and Hybrid. Gulf Coast Research Laboratory Museum Publication 3:1- as for insertions and deletions. Second, since some Scriptural 328. Schwartz, F.J., 1981. World Literature to Fish Hybrids with an Analysis by Family, repetition seems to be there for beauty, perhaps some DNA Species, and Hybrid Supplement 1. NOAA Technical Report NMFS SSRF-750. repetition (such as the HORs of alpha satellite) is designed to pay Wood, T.C. 2008. Animal and plant baramins. CORE Issues in Creation 3:1-258. tribute to the beauty of the Designer. Third, scriptural repetition connects distant passages for the reader. Perhaps, analogously, Function in Genetic Redundancy DNA redundancy coordinates genetic activity across the human K.P. Wise genome. High identity DNA sequences are drawn together (e.g., Truett McConnell University DNA clones are drawn to sequence-similar sections of the human genome while DNA is condensed). So perhaps similar sequences Roughly 40% of the human genome is repetitive DNA. In at different locations on the DNA are drawn together during the purposeless processes like evolution, repetition is likely non- normal function of DNA. This would draw different chromosomes functional—an artifact of on-going purposeless processes like or different portions of the same chromosome into proximity sequence duplication. In contrast, creationism expects such for inter-gene regulation and gene-gene interaction. Such long- common features to be designed. Insight into God’s intention distance interactions could facilitate coordination of genetic for repetitive DNA may be seen in His design for repetition in activity across an organism’s entire body. Genetic sequences with Scripture. this kind of function could explain such things as long blocks of As God authored Scripture, He included redundancy at all genetic identity between and among different chromosomes and passage lengths. He repeated words within passages (e.g., ‘bâra’ multiple copies of genes located on different chromosomes. This thrice and ‘âsah’ ten times in Genesis One), between nearby may also provide a functional role for ‘pseudogenes’—non-coding accounts (e.g., ‘image’ in Genesis 1 and 5), and even across distant homologs of coding genes situated where they are to bring distant passages (e.g., ‘seed’, ‘blood’, ‘promise’). He repeated phrases portions of the genome into proximity. This might even explain similarly (e.g., ‘according to kind’ ten times in Genesis One, why the same pseudogenes are located in the same position in ‘and he died’ eight times in Genesis 5 and a ninth time in Gen. the genomes of multiple organisms—e.g., between humans and 9:29, ‘blood sacrifice’ and ‘high priest’ across both testaments). chimps. Scripture repeats genealogies (e.g., I Chronicles with multiple I suggest that the study of scriptural redundancy by biblical locations, Matthew 1 with Luke 3 and Genesis 5 and 11), psalms scholars can provide insight into the purpose of DNA redundancy (e.g., Psalms 14 and 53, Psalm 18 with II Sam. 22), and even major found in the human genome. parts of entire books (e.g., between Kings and Chronicles, among the synoptic gospels). One of the scriptural genres (Hebrew poetry) is even characterized by repetition (juxtaposition of parallel couplets).

JCTS B: Life Sciences www.coresci.org/jcts Volume 10:6 Expanding the Toolkit of Statistical Baraminology Cavanaugh, D.P., T.C. Wood, and K.P. Wise. 2003. Fossil Equidae: a with BARCLAY: Baraminology and Cluster monobaraminic, stratomorphic series. In: Ivey, R.L., ed. Proceedings of the Analysis Fifth International Conference on Creationism. Creation Science Fellowship, T.C. Wood Pittsburgh, pp. 143-153. Garner, P.A., T.C. Wood, and M. Ross. 2013. Baraminological analysis of Core Academy of Science and Avialae. In: M. Horstemeyer , ed. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Creationism. Creation Science Fellowship, A statistical approach to baraminology using discrete character Pittsburgh. data was introduced by Robinson and Cavanaugh (1998a, 1998b) Garner, P.A. and J. Asher. 2018. Baraminological analysis of and with two papers on catarrhine primates and felids. Subsequently the tetrapodomorphs. In: J. Whitmore, ed. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism. Creation Science Fellowship, methods were implemented in a web application BDISTMDS that Pittsburgh, pp. 458-471. allowed the user to perform baraminic distance correlation (BDC) Kaufman, L. and P.J. Rousseeuw. 1990. Finding Groups in Data: An Introduction with bootstrapping and classical multidimensional scaling (MDS) to Cluster Analysis. John Wiley and Sons: New York. (Wood 2008). These methods have been applied to numerous Reeves, C.R. In press. A critical evaluation of statistical baraminology: part 2— alternatives and conceptual and practical issues. Answers Research Journal. character sets to develop a baraminological perspective on horse Robinson, D.A. and D.P. Cavanaugh. 1998a. A quantitative approach to evolution (Cavanaugh et al. 2003), the relationships of birds and baraminology with examples from Catarrhine primates. Creation Research dinosaurs (Garner et al. 2013), Devonian tetrapods (Garner and Society Quarterly 34:196-208. Asher 2018), and hominins (Wood 2016). Throughout these Robinson, D.A. and D.P. Cavanaugh. 1998b. Evidence for a holobaraminic origin of the cats. Creation Research Society Quarterly 35:2-14. studies, the core methods of BDC and MDS have remained largely Wood, T.C. 2008. Baraminic distance, bootstraps, and BDISTMDS. Occasional unchanged, but these methods can be revised and new methods Papers of the BSG 12:1-17. can be added. In particular, Reeves (in press) recommended using Wood, T.C. 2016. Taxon sample size in hominin baraminology: a response to a Jaccard coefficient in addition to the simple matching baraminic O’Micks. Answers Research Journal 9:369-372. Wood, T.C. In preparation. Baraminology and cluster analysis: a response to distance, avoiding the parametric Pearson coefficient, and most Reeves. Answers Research Journal, forthcoming. importantly using existing clustering analysis techniques. To expand the methodology, the BDISTMDS application has A Baraminological Analysis of Fossil Mysticetes been retired, and a new web application BARCLAY (Baraminology T.C. Wood,1 G. Fears,2 and N.A. Doran2 and Cluster Analysis) is undergoing development. The initial 1Core Academy of Science release includes the original methodology of BDISTMDS but also 2Bryan College provides the following new features: Cetaceans are a diverse group of highly-specialized mammals • The distance metric can be set to either the simple matching with many purported transitional forms. These fossils are often distance (classical “baraminic distance”) or a Jaccard used as exemplary evidence of macroevolutionary change, yet coefficient. The Jaccard distance is for use on character sets previous creationist work has revealed the potential presence where zero encodes the absence of a character state. The of discontinuity within the , indicating the presence of Jaccard distance does not count matches where both taxa multiple baramins (Mace and Wood 2005, Wood 2007). To further lack a character state. evaluate cetacean baraminology, we obtained a supermatrix • The character relevance cutoff can now be set to zero, compiled by Fordyce and Marx (2018). The matrix consisted of which effectively forces BARCLAY to use all characters in 106 cetacean taxa and 275 characters (274 morphological and one calculating distances. chromosome count). The taxa represented five Odontoceti, three • BDC can now be calculated with either Pearson or Spearman Llanocetidae, three Mammalodontidae, seven Aetiocetidae, seven correlations. In BDISTMDS, Pearson correlations are used Eomysticetidae, seven stem taxa of the crown mysticetes, 71 crown by default, but the assumptions of the correlation are not mysticetes, and Coronodon havensteini (a toothed mysticete), met. Hence, the nonparametric Spearman correlation is to Morawanocetus yabukii (a putative aetiocetid), and Zygorhiza be preferred and is the default option in BARCLAY, and kochii (a basilosaurid). To examine relationships between these the Pearson correlation should be deprecated. Pearson is major clades, five submatrices of paired, adjacent clades were retained as an option for analysis of previous studies that formed from the supermatrix. These matrices consisted of the use this correlation. following adjacent clades: Odontoceti/Llanocetidae, Llanocetidae/ • Medoid partitioning and fuzzy analysis are added in Mammalodontidae, Mammalodontidae/Aetiocetidae, response to recommendations by Reeves (in press). Both Aetiocetidae/Eomysticetidae, and Eomysticetidae/stem taxa of are implemented via the PAM and FANNY algorithms in R the crown mysticetes. Crown mysticetes were also examined (Kaufman and Rousseeuw 1990). BARCLAY can generate separately. Baraminic distance correlation (BDC) was calculated a text-based report for each algorithm or create a color- for each submatrix using BARCLAY (Wood 2020). All characters coded silhouette plot. and taxa for each submatrix were used to calculate distances. In three of the submatrices (Mammalodontidae/Aetiocetidae, Future development will focus on creating a batch mode for Aetiocetidae/Eomysticetidae, and Eomysticetidae/stem taxa of rapid calculations using a large number of character sets and a new the crown mysticetes), the clades could be readily identified by bootstrapping implementation. Further details on the methods the presence of significant, positive BDC between the members. described herein are forthcoming (Wood, in preparation). Stable Similarly, significant, negative BDC was observed between releases of BARCLAY will be available at coresci.org/barclay. Mammalodontidae and Aetiocetidae, between Aetiocetidae and

JCTS B: Life Sciences www.coresci.org/jcts Volume 10:7 Eomysticetidae, and between Eomysticetidae and the stem taxa of the crown mysticetes. In the analysis of the crown mysticetes, three clusters could be discerned by the presence of significant, positive BDC within each group: Balaenidae, Balaenopteridae, and a cluster consisting of stem Balaenopteroidea and (excluding Caperea and Miocaperea). Significant, negative BDC was observed between the Balaenidae and the remaining crown taxa. Significant, negative BDC was also observed between Balaenopteridae and Cetotheriidae, but not between Balaenopteridae and the stem Balaenopteroidea. Instead, members of Balaenopteridae and the stem Balaenopteroidea shared significant, positive BDC, making one larger cluster consisting of Cetotheriidae and Balaenopteroidea and excluding Caperea and Miocaperea. Caperea and Miocaperea share significant, positive BDC with only three taxa: Eubalaena shinshuensis, Herpetocetus morrowi, and Herpetocetus bramblei. The remaining submatrices did not show clear evidence of clustering. In the Odontoceti/ Llanocetidae submatrix, Physeter macrocephalus exhibited significant, negative BDC with the Llanocetidae, but no other significant, negative BDC was observed. Significant, positive BDC was observed within the Llanocetidae and within a group consisting of Olympicetus, Archaeodelphis, and Albertocetus. In the Llanocetidae/Mammalodontidae submatrix, significant, positive BDC was observed between Mammalodon hakataramea and Mammalodon colliveri and between M. hakataramea and Janjucetus. Significant, negative BDC was observed between Llanocetus denticrenatus and Mammalodon colliveri. Based on these results, we suggest that three mysticete families probably correspond to holobaramins: Eomysticetidae, Aetiocetidae, and Balaenidae. Mammalodontidae could also be a holobaramin, but clear evidence discontinuity between mammalodontids and llanocetids is lacking. A group consisting of Cetotheriidae and Balaenopteroidea (excluding Caperea and Miocaperea) could also be a holobaramin, but further study is warranted given the presence of significant, negative BDC within the group. The lack of significant, negative BDC between the odontocetes and mysticetes could be an artifact of the small sample size. These results significantly expand the previous work that looked at a far smaller sample of mysticetes.

Fordyce, E.R. and F.G. Marx. 2018. Gigantism precedes filter feeding in evolution. Current Biology 28:1670-1676. Mace, S.R. and T.C. Wood. 2005. Statistical evidence for five whale holobaramins (Mammalia: Cetacea). Occasional Papers of the BSG 5:15. Wood, T.C. 2007. Evidence that some toothed mysticetes are archaeocetes (Mammalia: Cetacea). Occasional Papers of the BSG 10:23-24. Wood, T.C. 2020. Expanding the toolkit of statistical baraminology with BARCLAY: Baraminology and Cluster Analysis. Journal of Creation Theology and Science Series B: Life Sciences, submitted.

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